First Three 50GB Blu-ray Disc Titles

October 9, 2006

Blu-rayFour months ago I ruffled a few feathers with a post entitled ‘Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD Fact vs. Fiction’ in the post I argued against four misconceptions that seemed to be permeating among consumers and retailers alike, with regard to Blu-ray’s supposed superiority over HD DVD. Those points were ‘Blu-ray is superior because it supports 1080P’, ‘Blu-ray supports lossless audio’, ‘Blu-ray has more capacity’ and ‘Blu-ray has better image quality’.

The announcement of the Toshiba HD-XA2 squelched the 1080p argument once and for all; thankfully the lossless argument seems to have dissipated as well as the image quality arguments, although Sony shows no signs of abandoning MPEG-2 any time soon for their titles. However other BD exclusive studios have indicated interest in VC-1 and or MPEG-4.

Fairs fair however one of those bullet points will ebb tomorrow when Sony Pictures releases their first 50GB Blu-ray disc, Adam Sandler’s “heart-warming comedy Click”. Also slated for BD50 – ‘Black Hawk Down’ (November 14th) and ‘Talladega Nights’ (December 12th). Fox and Lion’s Gate are also planning a few BD50 titles this year as well.

I know the original post flustered quite a few readers but at the time BD50’s were indeed conspicuously absent from the release rosters. Moving forward into 2007 we’ll finally get a chance to compare some of the Blu-ray titles to HD DVD releases that aren’t devoid of extras and or lossless audio, this should make for a more accurate comparison all around.



Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under Blu-ray


Comments

  • kidbrax

    How can you tell if something was filmed in HD. For example, we know when they release ‘Star Wars’ that it wasn’t originally filmed in HD so it will never be full-quality HD, correct? Is there anyway to tell if newer movies are filmed in HD?

  • kidbrax

    How can you tell if something was filmed in HD. For example, we know when they release ‘Star Wars’ that it wasn’t originally filmed in HD so it will never be full-quality HD, correct? Is there anyway to tell if newer movies are filmed in HD?

  • Dave

    Did they ever really solve the problem with manufacturing dual-layer–or are they just increasing the price for 50GB titles to compensate for the low yields?

  • Dave

    Did they ever really solve the problem with manufacturing dual-layer–or are they just increasing the price for 50GB titles to compensate for the low yields?

  • B.Greenway

    Your guess is as good as mine on yields and production costs Dave. I assume your talking about wholesale costs and not retail.

  • B.Greenway

    Your guess is as good as mine on yields and production costs Dave. I assume your talking about wholesale costs and not retail.

  • B.Greenway

    kidbrax, Film has (at least, bare minimum) two to three times the resolution of HD. It’s all in the transfer.. As far as finding out if it was video or film sources, I can’t think of a definitive source for finding that out, IMDB offers a premium subscription service; they may include those kinds of details.

  • B.Greenway

    kidbrax, Film has (at least, bare minimum) two to three times the resolution of HD. It’s all in the transfer.. As far as finding out if it was video or film sources, I can’t think of a definitive source for finding that out, IMDB offers a premium subscription service; they may include those kinds of details.

  • Aron

    Is the 1080p in the HD-XA2 implemented differently (better) than that in the Samsung Blu-Ray player? As you know, the Samsung (with its Broadcom chip) doesn’t output 1080p directly. Instead, it adds interlacing/deinterlacing to the signal path, as follows: 1080p/24 (from the disc) -> 1080i/60 -> 1080p/60. Ideally, you would want to avoid these unncessary (and potentially harmful, if not done perfectly) steps, and instead have 1080p/24 -> 1080p/60.

  • B.Greenway

    Aron, I haven’t seen any specific information published on how the XA2 accomplishes 1080p. It’s definitely something I’ll be keeping an eye out for though.

  • B.Greenway

    Aron, I haven’t seen any specific information published on how the XA2 accomplishes 1080p. It’s definitely something I’ll be keeping an eye out for though.

  • Aron

    Is the 1080p in the HD-XA2 implemented differently (better) than that in the Samsung Blu-Ray player? As you know, the Samsung (with its Broadcom chip) doesn't output 1080p directly. Instead, it adds interlacing/deinterlacing to the signal path, as follows: 1080p/24 (from the disc) -> 1080i/60 -> 1080p/60. Ideally, you would want to avoid these unncessary (and potentially harmful, if not done perfectly) steps, and instead have 1080p/24 -> 1080p/60.